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Special Teams Must Make Marked Improvements For St. Louis Blues To Elevate In Standings
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- Special Teams Must Make Marked Improvements For St. Louis Blues To Elevate In Standings
MARYLANDHEIGHTS, Mo. -- Sundaywas special teams' day for the St. Louis Blues , who were getting aglimpse of two units that need to make marked improvements thisseason.
OnPP1, there was Philip Broberg , Robert Thomas , Dylan Holloway , MasonMcTavish and Jimmy Snuggerud . On PP2, Cam Fowler and Logan Mailloux traded spots running the point with Connor McMichael , PavelBuchnevich, Dalibor Dvorsky and Jake Neighbours .
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Itwas a power play that improved in the second half of the season butfinished at 17.6 percent overall (25th in the league) and a penaltykill that was also 25th at 76.7 percent.
"Ithought the penalty kill actually was a lot faster in zone than I wasexpecting just because it's a new coach (GregCronin) andnew methods, new structure," Bluescoach Jim Montgomery said."The power play, I thought the attack mindset off of face-offs wasbetter but after that, the first unit, too many turnovers needlessly.The other unit, they moved it really well at times and overstick-handling at times.
"Justan OK start on the power play, but we're going to continue to workon that so we can be significantly better this year."
Thomasand Snuggerud were interchangeable while running their reps,switching off from the left wall and net front, and yes, Snuggerudhas the one-timer that would be a weapon, but it will all depend onwho the Blues play and how those PK units line up.
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"Theversatility part will come from scouting other teams, but ideally,he's on the half wall," Montgomerysaid of Thomas."You want the puck to run through the best decision maker on yourteam on the power play. If you look at Edmonton , it's(Connor) McDavid or (Leon)Draisaitl.If you look at Tampa, it's (Nikita)Kucherov,right? And that's what he is for us, and he's got to make it go."
AddingMcTavish to it should give the Blues a nice one-time option from theright circle, a spot that Holloway and Dvorsky occupied last season.
"Heknows he has a great shot, he loves to shoot it, but I also saw himtry and go backdoor a lot when it wasn't in the right spot, andthat's trying to get more shot attempts," Montgomerysaid of McTavish, who had 23 power-play goals the past two seasons ofhis 39."Power play is a big focus."
Hollowaywas being used in the bumper.
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"It's50/50. We think MacT is better suited (inthe right circle),"Montgomerysaid."Looking at 'Holly's goals over the last two years, a lot ofthem come 5-on-5 from the bumper spot and that's how he scoredtoday. For some reason when he gets it there on that forehand side,he just rips it. He scored a lot of 5-on-5 F3 shots from there. It'svery similar. Now, he's going to have a little bit of a progressionof how to support pucks well like your high-end bumpers do, kind oflike 'Buchy' does."
Therewill be competition for spots and playing time on the special teams,especially the power play, and with Fowler and Mailloux taking repson the point, nothing is set in stone yet.
"No,they're differences. Besides the fact one's lefty, one'srighty, but like we said Day 1 of camp, we want to make it acompetitive camp," Montgomerysaid."No one's being given anything, you've got to go out and earnit. So we're seeing fights for certain positions and if certainplayers don't play well on the power play, they won't keep thatright. It's a privilegeto be out there. I did like the way everybody worked today on thepower play."
PP1unit will get their first game reps on Monday night in the secondpreseason game when the Blues travel to face the Dallas Stars .
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